Pokémon Let's Go Pikachu and Eevee Launch Shipments Will Be Larger Than Any Switch Game To Date

Not enough Pokeballs!
Nowhere near enough!

I'm buying one of those, that's for sure.

Numbers like these make me wonder why we didn't get a core Pokémon game on consoles sooner. What took them so long?!

This game is going to be massive!

This game will bring kids and families into the Switch scene. You know on Christmas Day when families go to other houses to hang out?...all the kids will be playing their new Switches and going nuts over the game. Great times ahead for Nintendo for sure!

Seems like a smart move to me. From everything I've seen this game looks pretty great.

I really need the ball accessory.

The Pokemonnomenon is real.

@maruse i'll buy both versions

@BenAV But the graphics are cute and it has co-op!

Well the good news is if people don't buy these like crazy, they will have to go on clearance to get them out of the stores, so for all the skeptics out there, just hang on until the price drops lol

@BenAV I'm the opposite. I really like the cute art style and playing co-op with my kids will be fun. I don't care much about the integration with Pokemon GO, but everything else looks perfectly fine to me.

Was Pokémon Yellow considered a spin off? I don't remember it being. But either way, if Let's Go! is a full rpg experience like Yellow, with trainer and gym battles, then I'm not convinced capturing Pokémon by throwing as opposed to battling is enough to warrant a 'spin off' label. It's like labelling BotW a spin off.

7.8/10 - Not enough Pokéballs.

This game is honestly so far from what I was expecting, but it's not the core game so it's fine. In any case, I'm intrigued - anything with "Pokémon" in the title will do it. I'll wait for reviews and gameplay once it's out before I decide to buy, but I'll likely be making the purchase as I need something to tide me over until next year.

i don't see it as a spin off but a remake of pokemon yellow /w the ability to fight pokemon on the wild. Ofc it will be huge. I want a pokemon plus too...

@GrailUK
indeed, i agree.
If they call this a spin off, then the main game will be massive.

@Nunya,

No it doesn't,this game will appeal to a much wider audience than the core games imo,it will appeal to the masses and Pokémon go players,plus will always get core players wanting to try something new or have their pokemon fix before the mainline title hits next year.

The battle system needs to be discussed more. I hope it is a proper remake of Yellow. I'm still going to get it. I love Eevee. It is my favorite Pokemon. I especially love Leafeon so I hope all the evolutions will be there.

Of course .

And that Pokeball, please and spare me that is a must buy.

@AwokenZoe Because Pokémon is largely about you being able to take the console with you, trading and battling with your friends locally, training them on the go, etc. This just wasn't possible with any home console before, now it is with the Switch.

Oh, and no matter what anybody says, this is CLEARLY a spinoff game. It doesn't have wild battles, you catch Pokémon in GO's way, you can see them on the overworld, the controls are very non-traditional, two people can simultaniously play on the same screen (with no real benefit or added fun), 80% of the existing Pokémon are missing completely, the game has supposedly no focus on competitive play, and supposedly the internal workings (EVs, IVs, etc) will be simplified. Plus I'm pretty sure you won't be able to trade Pokémon between these and the main line Pokémon games.
Colosseum and XD on the GameCube had much more in common with the core series, and everybody calls them spinoffs... But if this looks like a core game to you, then Colosseum and XD were definitely core games as well, and they are on a home console.

@River3636 They stated that only the first generation of Pokémon will be available, so no Leafeon, sadly. And I'd bet you won't be able to evolve your Eevee at all, just like you couldn't evolve Pikachu in Yellow.

I'm can't accept this Pokémon Go rubbish. Is everyone else really going to accept this and let them decide to make watered down games, maybe even cancel the main series in favour of them !?

@Krisi It is an updated version of the game and Eevee is all about evolution so I am still hopeful.

@May_Nyan Well just read all the comments Pokémon fans buy anything that has pikachu not matter the quality anymore apparently this game is too basic and barebones even for casuals even the original games from decades ago has more content than this games

All of the investors went crazy when POKÉMON GO was such a huge hit. It's only natural that a console release that linked with it be developed. This is some of the best complimentary software ever and my kids will love it. The big experience will come out next year so it's all good.

@Fandabidozi
So? Zelda and Mario have always been on both, so why not Pokemon?

@River3636 "Eevee is all about evolution"

My kids have watched the Pokemon cartoon for 28 seasons or so - I've seen all the movies - and we are still waiting for Pickachu to evolve into Raichu. That's sarcasm, we relaly arne't, and we aren't expecting either Pickachu or Eevee to evolve in these kid focused games. Can you imagine if a kid spends 20 or 30 hours playing this game w/ Eevee on their characters head and then it evolves into something else? Poor liitle kid will be having mutant monster nightmares for weeks.

Now I suppose it's possible you can catch an Eevee or Pickachu in the wild and evolve those, but neither companion in either game is going to evolve. For starters, Pikachu has 1 evolution, Eevee has 8 options, how do you balance that out between the 2 games? Basically having a separate comparable Pickachu game seals the deal on no Eevee evolution.

@May_Nyan "and let them decide to make watered down games"

If you think this looks watered down you should try playing Pokemon Quest. They took free-to-play Pokemon Rumble World from 3DS and took all of the game out of it, it's barely even a tech demo now. People always complain about free mobile games but I've played much better games than this on mobile. I've spent 3 hours on Quest - my son was watching me and helping me - and we both decided it's trash. Pokemon Rumble U on Wii U was also trash, and that was $17.99. Free to play Pokemon Shuffle was better than this.

My point is, there always have been and always will be watered down, and not so watered down, Pokemon games, Snap!, Pokepark, Ranger, Dungeon, Coliseum. Don't let "Let's Go" make you think the main series is done. They aren't going to stop making 2D and 3D Mario games if Tennis Aces does well either.

@AwokenZoe When they designed Pokémon, they saw it as a portable game as opposed to a dark bedroom game. I suppose the Switch is the first console which allows them to retain that philosophy. (Just a guess, but like almost everything made, they follow a design brief that for some reason, a console game couldn't follow.)

@GKO900 normally i would disagree with a statement like this BUT i did buy Pokemon Channel so i think your right, people will buy anything with Pikachu's face on it

@GrailUK
I've heard that reasoning before; Pokemon not being suited for home consoles. I'm not buying that. Sorry.

600,000 copies means they expect the pick up rate to be 50% (France recorded over 1m Switch sales back in February).

That'd be impressive.

This isn’t a core Pokémon game. I don’t care if Nintendo is trying to redefine what that means.

This will sell well, but a lot of people will hate it because of its stripped features. What a sham. Should’ve just been a remake of Pokemon Red/Blue/Yellow remake with some Pokemon Go connectivity.

If the Pokeball Plus Success, Nintendo can milking us with More Pokeballs variety.
Great Ball, Luxury Ball, Speed Ball, Master Ball, etc.

@AwokenZoe Ok, slight spin. Since Pokémon Company is it's own brand, it obviously wanted to put it's games on the console with the largest user base. As this was mostly handhelds, then of course it makes sense to design the games for handhelds (resolution etc and take in to account any features of the system - connectivity etc).
Switch is the next big thing so it makes sense for them to use that console. If they had invented Pokémon in the 80's I'm sure we would have seen an NES version!
Now, ok, I can already here you asking how come the Wii didn't get a Pokemon game. Well, the DS outsold the Wii and had a familiar form factor for the game. So they developed for that and used it's features. Ummm...that and cross developing between handheld and home console until recently sounds like it was rather laborious. Let's Go! is looks like up-rezzed 3DS graphics, which harks back to what Mr Iwata mentioned about transferring assets so they haven't made it from the ground up. And it's nice of them to use the Switch's features of sharing joycons, rumble and motion control.

@GrailUK
Yes, the handhelds had the biggest installbase, I agree and it's a fair reason to bring up in this discussion. But isn't that true for every franchise? Why develop those big expensive 3D Zeldas for home consoles when you can make them a lot cheaper for the handheld market and sellI more of them? I just think it's odd Nintendo was never able to convince the Pokémon Company to develop main games for SNES, N64, GC, Wii and WiiU. Some of those consoles were really struggling and I believe they would have received an enormous sales boost if they DID have Pokemon games on them.

The reality is the market for these casual Pokemon games is waaaaay larger then the core Pokemon games market. Is anyone really surprised? The game looks like a great compromise to me anyway, I wouldn’t be surprised if the next core game builds on the let’s go games just with generation 8 Pokemon.

While I do wish you could battle wild Pokemon, this entry looks like a lot of fun, and streamlining the series to get away from the competitive meta and weird gimmicks like Z-Moves and Mega Evolutions will be a nice touch for those of us who just want to wander around, collect the original iconic critters, and battle with other trainers/gym leaders. It's too bad I'm not really interested in Pokemon Go, so that aspect of the game won't do anything for me. Thankfully, the integration seems like it will be minor.

I'm not worried about getting the game, I'll buy digitally if I really have to (although I don't anticipate shortages for the physical game card itself). What I'm worried about is sufficient stock of the Pokeball Plus accessory. The Pokémon GO Plus accessory was almost impossible to find for nearly a year in Canada, I only found one hiding behind a bunch of other things at my local EB Games and was able to snatch it up but it was definitely over 9 months post-launch before stores had regular stock. And that's because most of North America's shipments went to the U.S. so I'm really hoping Canada doesn't get shafted once again with the Pokeball Plus. Give us sufficient stock and let us start pre-ordering now please!

@AwokenZoe Because The Pokémon Company has always said they wanted the Pokémon experience to be an on-the-go kind of experience. They want you to go outside and play the game with other people, and Nintendo's handhelds fell in line with that thinking. Now the Switch offers a portable experience with the power of a home console. So now there's the opportunity for the console games that gamers always wanted but the developers were hesitant (until now) to deliver upon.

@AwokenZoe I get what you are saying But imagine you are the CEO of Nintendo. What on Earth would you say to a very successful company to convince them to make a core game for a failed system that even yourselves aren't wanting to support anymore? I am all ears...because I wouldn't have a clue (or the nerve) to even entertain that idea! Edit* I suppose there is begging...but that's more forum territory than board room lol

@GrailUK Pokémon Yellow was not a spin-off. I think people (myself included) are using the word "spin-off" for these Let's Go games because there's no random encounters and you don't battle Pokémon to catch them (they've taken the Pokémon GO method of capturing Pokémon for this game). And I think it's this reason why the term "spin-off" is being used. So to not get bogged down in semantics, maybe a better way of classifying this game is a "reimagining." Yes it's Pokémon Yellow, but it differentiates enough from what that game was that I think that's why people are classifying it how they are. If that makes any sense.

Yeah, i'm just gonna wait for the mainline game.
I'm not even an elitist and i'm tempted to say something like: "maybe the casuals would like this...but not me."

Ugh...

@DarthFoxMcCloud I get ya chief.

@Krisi Over on IGN there was a very indepth article about the mechanics of this game. They said the partner Pokémon (Eevee and Pikachu you get at the beginning of the game) won't be able to evolve. That said, the game will have wild Pikachu and Eevee that you can catch in addition to the partner Pokémon and you can evolve those. Also I totally agree with your statement on the spinoff/not-spinoff debate.

@Orin41 I'm not sure how I feel about Pokemon appearing on the field yet. I think the biggest boon AND downside to it will be the degree to which it streamlines the whole Pokemon collection process. If you can see all the Pokemon in an area and just zone in and out to refresh them, you're removing a major chunk of the time traditionally spent looking for new Pokemon. As a lot of players likely won't engage Pokemon they've already caught unless they're intent on level grinding, it'll also cut into the time spent accumulating EXP over the normal course of gameplay.

Sometimes random battles can be annoying, as they randomly tear you out of your field navigation into an entirely different screen. On the other hand, there's a neat anticipation involved with random battles. The space of time between triggering a battle and actually seeing the wild Pokemon appear on screen has a wonderful tension to it, like when you're opening a present at Christmas. Seeing them all on the map is more like seeing the unwrapped presents sitting under the tree in full view. Sure, you still want the presents, but there's a... specialness to the occasion that is removed when you don't have that tension between anticipation and result.

Pokemon Sun/Moon had the same initial shipment size as Let's Go Pikachu/Eevee back in 2016. Nintendo clearly has huge expectations for Let's Go.

Well, to be fair, Odyssey released ~8 months after Switch launched, while the Let's Go games will launch over a year after that came out. The install base will be much, much bigger.

@River3636 Your starter Pokemon cannot evolve, and the only eeveelutions in the game are Flari Jolte and Vapore. It's specifically Kanto Pokemon only.

Getting Eevee and the pokeball.

I'm definitely getting the Eevee version. It's Pokemon on Switch so it already had my money.

@Ledgendt That does not sound cool. Says who?

@rjejr I am not liking the sound of the truth.

First of all nintendo is going to get not as much money Because many don't have a switch and won't get one just because of this game also nintendo better get ready for an angry mob of people headed to their HQ

^ Wha?

I'm just kidding about getting nintendo getting an angry mob at their HQ

Pokemon, much like Mario is one series you almost never need to worry about selling out. Nintendo knows at least those two series will always sell, so there is no reason to hold back on producing copies of the game.

@maruse I'm with you ! I'm definitely buying the game with two pokeballs

@cfgk24 exatly what I thought, exactly what I thought. I don't like this, don't like it at all. Is going to be a nightmare to get one and I need 2.

Impressive and all, I’m just still confused over the inability to evolve your starter being the one thing they kept from Yellow. They thought battling wild Pokémon needed to go but that had to stay?

So in other words: It will be available in stores, right?
I'm still looking for Kirby, Donkey Kong and Hyrule Warriors...and it's as ridiculous as it sounds...

@AwokenZoe you don’t have to buy it. But it is the design philosophy. The same reason why The Sims belongs on a computer, Wii Sports on a motion based console and Animal Crossing on a handheld as well. There is difference between handheld and console experiences, which is one of the reasons why the PS Vita failed. It tried to emulate a console experience on a handheld, while consumers expect a handheld experience on a handheld and vice versa for the console. Pokémon just suits a console less than a handheld, because one of its core elements is social competition and real life social dynamics . Don’t forget Pokémon is a Japanese game, a country where people take handhelds with them everywhere including work, school, public transport and going out.

A country where handhelds are way bigger and people take them to play their own games with each other. Versus the console which is a device where you play one person’s game together. In other word, you as the guest lose the progress.

when we say "Super Mario Odyssey launched with 350,000 copies" does that mean further shipments of the game have been sent out since then? It seems like 350k isn't actually much and I'm confused. I remember the launch of the switch that the attach rate of Zelda was over %90 and something like %75+ in Japan. If around 2-3 million units sold on launch day, then how did Zelda not exceed what this pokemon game is hitting shelves with, and what is the attach rate with Mario that it could be so much lower than Zelda if they didn't ship out more copies of Mario later on.

Edit: Didn't realize initially this was talking about France only. That makes way more sense. Alright thanks guys.

@hirokun this is initial shipment, more shipments will be based on the performance of this initial one. That is why Breath of the Wild was so hard to get on launch, the initial shipment sold out quickly.

It Prints Money

@Einherjar Eh? You can't find these? Where are you?!?!?

@cfgk24 Germany, and ive been through 3 different (local) electronics stores. I'm friends with several people from the staff and no one has a clue what the issue is.
They placed orders, but never received their stock. Either it's a massive shortage or the supplier for our region croaked.

@hirokun
Nintendo shipped 350,000 copies of Mario Odyssey to France alone during the launch period.

In France, Mario Odyssey sold through 115,000 retail copies during its launch. It sold-through over 500,000 retail copies by the end of 2017.

@kotag,

I think you should wait for the core mainline Pokémon game,as I feel this may be far too casual for you.

@Hyrule,

No doubt in my mind,no doubt whatsoever,this is why I feel Nintendo are targeting 20 million Switch units this financial year.

@Nunya Flop as hard as Labo? LMFAO. These games will AT LEAST sell 10 mil easy. Its not a spin off, its a new mainline series that Nintendo is starting.